Georgetown Gallery Walk: Book Hill

The Georgetown galleries on Book Hill are one of the few remaining true gallery clusters in the city. Meandering along a few blocks of Wisconsin Ave., we are surrounded by art, free to walk into galleries that call to us from their vibrant window displays. This group of galleries offers us a great variety of works to explore, from renowned glasswork to classic landscapes and the contemporary and avant-garde. Here’s a look at what’s happening on Book Hill. For more information on the Georgetown Galleries on Book Hill, visit GeorgetownGalleries.com.

Addison/Ripley Fine Art
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Washington artist Isabel Manalo is a painter who has taught at American University’s art department for ten years, as well as shown locally, nationally and internationally throughout her career. “Bits of Elsewhere” is Manalo’s third exhibition with Addison Ripley, and the new work follows her ongoing pursuit of capturing memory and the tenuous, ethereal uncertainty of human nature. Her mixed media works mix paints and photographs with unprecedented subtlety and grace—it’s hard not to be moved by their pulsing, expansive nature. March 10 – April 14.

1670 Wisconsin Ave. NW. AddisonRipleyFineArt.com

Heiner Contemporary
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Through March 3, the collages, sketchbooks, prints and installations of Austin Thomas turn Heiner Contemporary into a center of social and artistic discourse. Thomas’s centerpiece for the exhibit, an interactive desk and workspace, engages visitors to talk, read, draw, think, and listen. The show will close with an artist discussion on March 3 at 4 p.m. On March 10, Heiner Contemporary will open its next exhibition, titled: “Avery Lawrence is Moving a Tree and Arranging Suitcases.” Details are still trickling in, but if the title alone doesn’t get your attention, what will?

1675 Wisconsin Ave. NW. HeinerContemporary.com

Maurine Littleton Gallery
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Renowned Seattle-based glass artist Ginny Ruffner will open an exhibit of her work on February 29, in conjunction with a screening of an award-winning documentary of the artist’s life and work at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery on the same day. The film will be screened at noon, followed by a gallery event at 2 p.m., where the artist will be in attendance. Ruffner’s works are constantly evolving “visual thought experiments,” and her glass sculptures and drawings turn life’s daily props and occurrences into remarkable visual experiences.

1667 Wisconsin Ave. NW. LitteltonGallery.comhttp://www.littletongallery.com/)

Susan Calloway Fine Arts
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Local interior designer Andrew Law will employ his craft and eye for refined, classic and approachable design to “create a room” in Susan Calloway Fine Arts’ already gorgeous and comfortable gallery, pulling from contemporary artworks, antique paintings and prints from the gallery’s private collection. The collaboration, “At the Crossroads: Art + (Interior) Design,” pursues a common and important objective of enhancing design and lifestyle with art, and offering a platform for beauty in our daily lives. March 2 – March 17.

1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW. CallowayArt.com

Galerie Blue Square
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Two series of works by Russian-born artist Yevgeniy Fiks will open with a public reception on March 3, from 4 – 7 p.m., and continue through April 14. Fiks explores historical, communist threads in his conceptual works and projects, presenting the cultural, Post-Soviet practice of “making the absurd seem normal, at the same time the West is seduced and implicated in it.” His latest series, “Magnitogorsk Guide to the National Gallery of Art,” will be on view, and a “performance” tour at the National Gallery of Art on March 24 accompanies the exhibit.

1662 33rd St. NW. GalerieBlueSquare.com

Neptune Fine Art
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Gallery Director Chris Neptune, recently moved into DC from New York, specializes in Modern and Contemporary art. With an extensive collection of artists ranging from contemporary masters such as Mel Bochner (now on view in the Tower of the National Gallery) and Alex Katz, to the timeless works of the Cubists and Impressionists, Neptune Fine Art has work to suit anyone’s palette. Opening April 21, “On Paper: Picasso & Matisse” offers a look into the drawings and prints of these renowned artists, who had a history of healthy competition with each other.

1662 33rd St. NW. NeptuneFineArt.com

Robert Brown Gallery
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Formerly on R St. near Dupont Circle, gallerist Robert Brown specializes in 20th century and contemporary works, as well as rare Chinese advertising posters from the early 1900s and Chinese antiques. Currently on display are works by prominent DC-based artist Linn Meyers, who has been commissioned in the recent past by The Phillips Collection, as well as William Kentridge (South Africa) and Oleg Kudryashov (Russia), two of the most significant living printmakers who were exhibited together at The Kreeger Museum in 2009. This is an exhibit for contemporary and historically minded viewers, and one you don’t want to miss.

1662 33rd St. NW. RobertBrownGallery.com